Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:58am EDT

ASTANA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan and a consortium of Western oil companies developing the Kashagan oilfield signed the final agreement on the future of the project on Friday after more than a year of tense negotiations.

Below are key facts about Kashagan and the final amended final Production Sharing Agreement (PSA):

* Kashagan is considered the world’s biggest oil find since the discovery of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in the 1960s.

* It holds an estimated 38 billion barrels of oil-in-place of which 13 billion are potentially recoverable with the use of gas re-injection. Kazakhstan plans to triple its oil output in 15 years with the field, becoming a key source of non-OPEC oil for the European Union.

* The Eni-led (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) AgipKCO consortium developing the field also includes Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L:Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz), ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz), Japan’s Inpex Holdings Inc (1605.T: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) and the Kazakh oil company [KMG.UL].

* The Oct. 31 deal puts the stakes owned by Eni, Exxon Mobil, KazMunaiGas, Royal Dutch Shell and Total at 16.81 percent each. ConocoPhillips gets 8.40 percent and Inpex 7.56 percent.

* Kazakh officials gave no details of the final agreed budget at the time of the agreement’s signing on Oct. 31. The government earlier said the final budget was fixed at $136 billion, up from the previous estimate of $57 billion. The consortium has invested $12.3 billion so far.

* Commercial production at the field, originally scheduled for 2005, has been delayed several times due to technical difficulties. The Oct. 31 deal puts the start date at late 2012.

* The first phase, which will take two to three years, will see output rising from the initial 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 300,000 bpd. At the beginning of the second phase, additional injection facilities will boost it to 450,000 bpd.

* The field will reach a plateau of 1.5 million barrels per day — slightly more than Kazakhstan’s current total output — by the end of the next decade.

* Eni will pass its lead role as the project operator to the new North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) in January 2009. A Total representative will serve as the first rotating NCOC Managing Director with a KMG executive as his deputy.

* The NCOC will be staffed by representatives of all partner companies and will be run largely in line with Total’s management system.

* Shell will manage production operations after the start up of the first phase with KazMunaiGas progressively assuming greater responsibility. During the second phase, Shell will run offshore development, Eni will be responsible for the onshore processing plant and ExxonMobil will be in charge of drilling.

(Writing by Olzhas Auyezov, editing by Anthony Barker)